RBL Trackplan Features - Port of Richmond

Port of Richmond

Port of Richmond is based on a blend of influences from industrial trackage and industries located near the Port of Richmond, Point Richmond, and also a little thrown in from South Oakland. I wanted a port area with trackage that clearly had to be a little convoluted to reach it’s destination but not so tangled that it looked just like an excuse to build a lot of challenging trackage. The general impression should be of openness, especially around the refinery operations.

The port would be reached from the west end of the yard and there was just enough space to allow for a decent lead - about 100 inches (~8 feet) is what I ended up with - that would allow a train of 10 cars or so to be taken from the yard and be fully in the port area without linking the two scenes operationally.

(Dark blue represents water of the port, grey polygons represent paved or concreted areas, white rectangles are mostly buildings and tanks, mustard colored circles are tanks, dark grey strips are paved roads.)

Port Lead and Port Siding

Track in the top part of the drawing above is the west end of Marina yard. The two tracks leading to the right and around the corner are the Port Lead (closest to the aisle) and the Port Siding. The big right-hand curve is a blessing and a curse. It’s good because it immediately turns the operator around with their back facing the yard (out of sight, out of mind). It’s bad because there’s no place to put a turnout that would end the siding till the curve ends behind the engine terminal potentially merging the yard and the port scenes. Having operated the port area in 3rd Plan It, I am very comfortable with this as mentioned in the Marina Yard post.

The buildings on the far side of Port Siding are intended to give the tracks a reason to curve sharply and the small canal is intended to emphasize the separation of the port from the yard as well as emphasizing the port character by bringing the water close to the tracks early in the scene. The waterfront is a scene I’m particularly looking forward to modeling. Here’s a rendering from 3pi.

Port Industries - Chevron Lead

The first port industry I’ll refere as the Chevron Loadout is accessed by a siding from a smaller lead I’ll call Chevron Lead which branches from the port siding. You can see there are four tank cars on the siding at the Chevron Loadout in the picture above.

The Chevron Loadout building is based on several like it in Point Richmond along Canal Blvd which appear to be used as loading or perhaps unload points. In the satelite photo below, the large white building has two tracks along it’s north side with a crossover about half-way along the building. Two tank cars are spotted near the tank complex to the right of the building and two more at the right hand edge of the photo.

From the road (Canal Blvd), only the building front and side is visible usually with two rows of tank cars sitting along it’s north side. The tank complex at the back (right hand end) looks interesting in the photo (it is not really visible from the Canal Blvd). Hopefully I have space on the canal end of the building to represent it.

Looking at the rendering below, as the Port operator turns a little more to the right, they are presented with a view of the rest of the port area. Chevron lead curves around to the far side of the port area to access another tank loading building (two tank cars spotted there in the picture below). Lets call this one California Oils and it will be based on a similar building on the Richmond Pacific’s 8th Street Bypass tracks.

Even though there are only two industries on Chevron Lead, it is interesting to switch. The switchback adds some interest and the lead is on a .8% grade. The California Oils loading facility at the end of Chevron Lead requires a runaround move on port siding to get the locomotive behind the cars before shoving in to switch their siding.

There is an additional tank car facility in the middle of the port scene that has a double track loadout and therefore a higher demand for switching. The double track is inspired by the double track service in the satellite picture of Point Richmond above. It’s two tracks can hold about ten cars. I connected it’s sidings to the Port Siding and a runaround move will also be needed to switch this industry. Let’s call this one the 76 loadout.

The mustard colored tanks are intended to be a refinery-like back drop that provides the character of many scenes around Point Richmond.These tanks will have the same logos as the 76 Loadout. They also form a cover for the BNSF tracks that are against the left hand wall and are descending toward the helix. The tanks are likely to be constructed as a group that can be removed for access to the BNSF tracks but hopefully the access is rarely needed.

I like how Chevron Lead curves around the center industry, and is squashed up against the fence guarding the tank farm as if the industry was there first and the track had to squeeze around it. The Chevron Lead track is in a kind of urban canyon with cyclone wire fences on either side.

Industries - Port Lead

I put two industries close to the water, both are served by Port Lead. The first (olive green color) is some kind of cement or grain terminal served by rail, barge and truck. Let’s call it Olive Grain Terminal for now. I haven’t decided on what to put here. I’m mainly interested in something with tall silos and angled conveyors which make a nice focal point on the small peninsula which is quite prominant on entry to the room.

The siding is quite generous and is shown holding four 60’ gondolas though three bay hoppers would be more appropriate. (3pi’s selection of rolling stock is not heavily weighted toward good modern US equipment and I haven’t bothered to construct additional virtual cars). This scene reminds me a lot of the shots I took in South Oakland of the UP switcher working the line on the west side of the freeway. There isn’t room to put a barge on the water in the scene above, but there’ll be plenty of fun creating the retaining walls and water line.

Port Lead continues past Olive Grain to another switchback siding which serves a bulk loading facility akin to the port area on the Richmond Pacific.

Some piles of aggregates or gravel, a couple of silos, conveyors, a loading crane, and a front end loader should do the trick. Let’s call this one American Aggregates. I want American Aggregates to look very dusty and dirty. The Port of Richmond occasionally trans-ships bauxite which is a bright orange color. I’m debating whether something that bright in this scene would work, but it would certainly capture a distinctive feature of the RPRC port area.

The uneven shapes of the cement deck areas are intended to make it difficult to estimate size of the facilities and to suggest something larger that is beyond the layout edges. In both industries there’ll be some paved track. The siding for American Aggregates is a little shorter than I would have liked so I’ll design this plant around short two bay hopper cars. Each of these industries is behind some sort of security fencing that helps define each space.

The end of Port Lead can be seen at the right. Crews operating both the Chevron Lead and the Port Lead will be able to use the street crossing and the diamond as visual cues that the end of track is near.  I’ll use plexiglass guards to prevent rolling stock making swan-dives to the floor.

The Port of Richmond and the BNSF Marina Interchange

The Port Lead is on a 1.1% grade in order to be on the same level at the track at California Oils and be able to cross at the diamond. Both grades are needed to lift the track a little above the BNSF tracks that are descending below and entering the helix at this point. The port tracks would be easier to lay without the grades but it would force the BNSF track to be on a greater than 2% grade.

The grade on the BNSF track is undesirable operationally due to the dynamics of working the RBL-BNSF interchange track at Marina Yard. In order for a BNSF train to collect cars at the RBL interchange (adjacent to Marina Yard) on it’s return to BNSF Richmond Terminal (lower level), it will need to stop, uncouple the power and retrieve the interchange cars then pull the cars out of the siding and down the grade. The train will then back up a few car lengths to couple onto the rest of it’s train before proceeding. (The problem is no different if the rear of the train is used to collect the cars on the interchange track and that move is less prototypical as well.)

The interchange can be up to 20 cars so it is important to minimize the likelihood of derailments on the hidden grade. Thinking about it, guard rails may be a good idea on the BNSF track. Fortunatley, the back up move has the engines mostly on straight track.

A quick view of the Port of Richmond

As a point of reference, here’s an example of a spur at the Port of Richmond near the water. Lots to gleen from this photo - concrete and ballasted gound surfacing, yellow switchstands, a limited number of guard rails along the water, many piles in the water from an old pier near the retaining wall, the barge to the right, cranes and tank farms in the background. By the way, those two spurs to the left are the entire RPRC engine terminal.

(Note that the switch closest to the camera has guard rails while the one just beyond it does not.)

In another view of the RPRC port area, three tank cars are spotted adjacent to the water. Here the deck is concrete though not all flat or at the same level. A front end loader can just be seen to the left behind the massive moveable concrete walls used by the Levin Terminal to cordon off piles of bulk materials in trans-shipment. The white tanks in the background on the other side of the port inlet are actually the same tanks as those in the google satelite picture above.

Incidently, although this siding is on a tight s-curve crammed in at the port and holds three cars, I have tended to make all sidings on the RBL straight and have located curves away from the places where cars need to be coupled to ensure that rail car operations are as smooth and reliable as possible on the RBL.

Accessibility

I’m very pleased with the layout of the Port or Richmond on the RBL. It operates very well and is an exciting group of scenes to model. I have been particularly careful in locating turnouts. Each is within 18” from the layout edge and most are less than a foot. Each siding is also very close to the edge and any place where an operator needs to uncouple cars is almost always less than a foot and in all cases less than 18”. This is very important in N Scale and I do not want to limit operations by having fixed uncoupler locations where cars can be uncoupled.

Operations at the RBL Port of Richmond

The Port takes about 45 min to an hour real time to switch depending on the number of cars to be pulled and spotted. There are basically six sidings at five industries. Each industry can each be switched in a handful of minutes. Some require runaround moves which, at 10 mph, takes a couple of minutes real time.

The port siding is 54 inches long and holds about eleven 50 foot cars (I go by 2.5 cars to the foot), more if shorter cars are in the mix. I expect that two runs from Marina yard are likely to be easier as the port siding will be often holding cars. I have often seen the BNSF Point Richmond switcher running light back to or from the BNSF Richmond terminal so I’m okay with the port operator pulling some cars from Marina, doing some switching and then going back for more. More experienced operators may be able to get the job done with only one foray from the yard.

The operations will be livened up by the occasional need for the Marina Yard operator to use the Port Lead to move some cars in the yard. When that happens, the port operator will need to be in the clear temporarily.

Next Steps

The next few posts will focus on trackage to the east of Marina Yard.

- Coxy